


Until We Come Home

by TorunnSays412



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men (Movies)
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Panic Attacks, aftermath of Sokovia, the twins just need a hug :(
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2016-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-03 13:28:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5292824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TorunnSays412/pseuds/TorunnSays412
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The past is the past; until it becomes her present.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wanda and Pietro

**Author's Note:**

> When I saw AoU, I just couldn't stop thinking about this idea of the Maximoff twins not knowing that their father was alive and well, and Erik in turn oblivious to their continued survival. It wouldn't leave me alone for the longest time, but I only just managed to finish it. Hope you all enjoy it!

Wanda and Pietro find their home with the Avengers hesitantly and carefully. Each movement they make is carefully thought out, and it takes several weeks before they are comfortable being in Tony Stark’s presence.

They can’t forget what his weapons did to them, what was taken from them.

Stark has apologized, if it can be called that. He explains that he isn’t in the weapons business anymore, but they still prefer to take their orders from Captain America.

It’s been nearly two months since Sokovia. A new Avengers headquarters has been built, funded mostly by Stark. Pietro takes long runs around the grounds, and Wanda can’t help but think he’s running from his nightmares, his form of coping.

He nearly died, that day. If Clint hadn’t moved quick enough, hadn’t gotten him the help he needed…

She cuts her own thought short. She doesn’t need to think about the could have beens. She’s lost too much to need that on her mind.

  
She spends a lot of time with Natasha, because Natasha doesn’t pry. Natasha understands what it means to have secrets, to regret actions in the past and the urge to make up for it. She speaks quiet Russian with her when it gets to be too much, and slowly Wanda becomes more accustomed to her life as an Avenger. 

Sometimes, a group called the X-Men is mentioned. She and Pietro don’t understand the references the others make, but Wanda can’t help but be curious and wonder who this other group is, what they do.

Steve and Stark argue a lot, she learns. She often finds them huddled into corners whispering furiously with each other, Stark with wide gestures and Steve with controlled anger. Other times it’s loud shouts and angry insults that she can hear from across the complex. Whichever it is, she never likes it, and she stays in her room until the argument dies down.

_(Angry shouts ring in her ears as List and Strucker argue over their treatment, and she remembers the protests, how those yells had empowered her, given her life. She compares that to this vague sense of fear that she has, the feeling that everything is wrong._

_Pietro is in front of her, protecting her even though he can barely stand by himself. The tests have taken it out of him, and her hand on his arm is the only thing keeping him upright, giving him enough energy to stand._

_‘Did we make a mistake?’ she wonders, seeing the bruises on Pietro’s wrists, the stiff stance he has taken on. ‘Should we have agreed to this?’_

_Tony Stark’s face fills her mind, and hatred fills her heart again. Her resolve solidifies._

_They are subjected to even worse tests after the argument between List and Strucker dies down._

_It is always worse after they argue.)_

She and Pietro stay close together. They have not yet found their place in this new hierarchy, this new world.

She can’t help but wonder if they made the right choice staying with the Avengers after Sokovia. They had given up all their hatred towards Stark (and really, he’s Tony now, he’s given them a place to stay and food to eat and is almost eager to make up for what his weapons did to them) and she doesn’t know who she is without it. Pietro tells her that they’ll be okay now, that they’re safe. They don’t need to find their revenge anymore.

Natasha tells her that Steve and Tony fight like an old married couple, when Wanda asks what they’re always arguing about. “They fight over every little thing, it’s nothing to worry about,” she says, but her eyes are hard as she gazes at the couple on the couch, resolutely ignoring each other. Wanda can tell that even she doesn’t know what they are always fighting about in the corner, and that it bothers her.

Tony calls her and Pietro into his office one day, and Steve leans against the window behind Tony’s desk with his arms crossed over his chest. He looks relaxed, but she can see the underlying tension in his arms.

Pietro stops half a step in front of her, like he’s still protecting her even when they’re in no danger at all, and she knows he isn’t even thinking about it, it’s habit. A habit left over from their time with HYDRA, from the protests and the streets. She looks at Tony, tries to see in his face what they’ve been called in for, but she can’t make out the emotion she sees in his eyes, the tight set of his mouth.

“Wanda, Pietro, what do you remember of your parents?” Tony says, and Pietro stiffens and Wanda’s breath catches. Tony has never been subtle, she reminds herself, why would he start now?

Immediately, Pietro is ready to lash out, and he snarls, “Why would you of all people ask us this question?"

Tony’s gaze slides to the side, and Steve steps forward. “We are not asking to hurt you,” he reassures them, with half a glare sent towards Tony’s back. “We have something to tell you but we need to make sure you are ready for this.”

Wanda puts a hand on her brother’s shoulder, pulling him back just slightly. “We remember enough,” she says definitively. “Why do you want to know? 

Until then, the tablet lying in front of Tony has been untouched. Now, he reaches forward and taps a few times, then flips it around to show them.

It’s a picture of their father, alongside a SHIELD database file. It shows his personal information, as well as an analysis on his danger level. The thing that catches her eye, though, isn’t the words; it’s the man himself.

He’s shown as being older in this picture than she remembers; she knows his hair wasn’t so gray before the bombing, and he didn’t have as many wrinkles. Pietro sees it too, if his clenched fists are anything to go by.

Her brother has always been the type to act first, and think later. Papa had always said that Pietro was a wild fire and she was the cool rain of a storm, soothing the chaos her brother left behind him.

  
Lately, however, she has seen herself as the fire, her abilities crimson red and wild with her anger, her brother cool blue streaks of energy around her. 

_(The day their parents die is also the day she learns what true hatred is. Papa had told her stories, from his time in the camps to his mistakes on his quest for revenge._

_He had always said, though, that that was his past. His life with them was all that mattered, he said. Mama would always laugh gently at that._

_Those memories are what keep her going as she lays with her brother, coated in dust and staring at the shell with Stark’s name on it. It is ironic, she thinks, that her father had survived the concentration camps on pure hatred, and now his children are doing the same in the collapsed rubble of the building.)_

“Your father is alive,” Steve says bluntly. “Tony found this out several weeks ago and came to me when he was unsure of what to do with the information. We argued over it.”

Wanda’s breathing picks up when she registers what has just been said. Her skin feels too tight for her body, and her hands are shaking. Tony’s dark gaze falls on her. Her vision begins to blur. 

He is suddenly in front of her, pushing Pietro to the side and guiding her gently to sit on the floor. He crouches in front of her, and says softly, “You’re okay, Wanda, deep breaths, you’re safe,” but her eyes can’t focus on him clearly and she’s suddenly terrified as she realizes what is happening.

  
Papa used to have panic attacks, too. 

_(She is shivering next to her brother, and there are tears on both of their faces. They’re terrified, and there is dust everywhere, making them cough harshly with each breath,  and she knows Pietro has a broken arm._

_She doesn’t know what to do. She wants her mother to wipe her tears away, her father to hold her close and tell her everything will be alright._

_She knows that won’t happen again._

_She knows that her parents are dead._

_It’s a miracle that Pietro and her are still alive, but Mama and Papa had fallen through the floor, and she whimpers because the rubble is shifting and there’s a ringing in her ears and she doesn’t know if they’ll make it to tomorrow.)_

When she still can’t control her breathing, Tony softly asks, “Can I touch you?” Her nod is short and jerky and she can’t contain the trembling in her hands. His hands cover hers and then he guides her right hand to his chest, over his heart.

“I want you to breathe with me, Wanda, okay? Deep breaths, sweetie, deep breaths, there you go,” he says soothingly, exaggerating his own so she can concentrate on matching hers to his. Slowly, so slowly, the panic fades as she calms. 

Tony givers her a calm smile. “Better now?”

She nods shakily. Pietro is crouching behind her, his arms creating a cradle for her to lean against in the case that she had fallen back. Steve is watching them from his place behind the desk, it doesn’t seem like he’s moved at all, but he looks guilty for what he’s said.

“Thank you, Tony,” she says quietly, her voice barely above a whisper. He squeezes her hand and then stands, moving back to sit on his desk. Pietro helps her up, letting her lean against him slightly as she makes her way to the open chair Tony keeps for guests.

“I’m sorry, Wanda, I didn’t mean any harm,” Steve apologizes. “I should have thought about what I was saying and told you in a better way." 

Wanda nods in response; her mouth feels dry, and Tony seems to read her mind because he reaches back and pulls out a bottle of water for her. “Drink slowly,” he warns. “It’s cold.”

She can’t help but wonder how he knows to handle a panic attack.

As she sips her water, Steve and Tony further explain what they know. Their father works as a teacher at a school for mutants. He uses the name Erik Lehnsherr instead of Magnus Maximoff. Somehow, he survived the building collapse that killed their mother, and while he spent a long while searching for Wanda and Pietro, he never managed to find them.

_(Once they are rescued, the twins are taken to a hospital across the country. They’re far from home, and they’re now orphans, wards of the state. The nurses try to take care of them, and physically they heal, but mentally their wounds are too deep to mend easily._

_Unknown to them, their father is checked in to a different hospital, under a different name, alive and grieving for the family he believes is dead._

_They never cross paths.)_

/\/\

It’s another two weeks before Pietro and Wanda work up the nerve to go see their father for themselves. Tony sets up the meeting. He won’t explain why he’s so adamant about it, and Wanda doesn’t ask.

They meet in a field, because, Tony explains, all three have a tendency to destroy the property around them when their emotions run high. She can’t blame him for being cautious as memories of being locked in a cage while she learned to control her powers resurface in her mind.

Tony and Steve accompany them, and they stay by the car while the twins wait for their father.

Erik comes in a jet, with a man called Charles Xavier next to him, sitting in a wheelchair. Wanda has the feeling that there are others waiting in the jet itself, but no one else emerges.

It is awkward, to say the least. Charles stays behind Erik as he stares at his children, giving them the privacy they need.

“Hello, Wanda, Pietro,” Erik finally says, and there’s something in his voice, the way he says their names, and she is pulled back into a time when he was Magnus instead of Erik, where he would teach them his native German and smile with haunted eyes while their mother looked on in the background.

She wonders what this meeting would be like if Pietro had died during the battle, if Clint hadn’t managed to get him back in time; if she would be angry at herself for her inactivity towards his death or blame her father for not being there.

Instead, she chokes, and there are tears in her eyes, and she flings herself towards her father, wrapping her arms around him tightly. She cries for everything she’s lost - her home, her mother - but she also cries for what she has gained - a new allegiance, a father, a family.

Wanda knows she will never truly recover from the events of her life, and her brother will always carry the scars from his near death, and her father will always have the past that haunts him, but they’re together and they can work towards being okay again.

/\/\

Life continues on. Once the shock has worn off, the small family of three stays in touch while going their separate ways, the twins back with the Avengers and Erik at the school. They relearn each other slowly, talking carefully, ignoring, for the moment, the bad things of their lives and remembering the good.

Eventually, the twins find their place with confidence. They learn to fully trust their teammates, and in turn, their teammates trust them.

  
Wanda and Pietro brush up on their German through their conversations with Erik, and keep up their Russian with Natasha (and later Bucky, when Steve brings him in.) 

They train with Sam and the Vision, Steve and Natasha watching over them. 

The Avengers eat as a group when it comes to dinner time, and they joke and laugh with each other like old friends, like a family.

Wanda and Pietro are finally happy, with their father back in their lives and a place they can call home, with people who care about them and a way to use their powers for good.

And Wanda begins asking, instead of wondering.


	2. Erik

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erik's point of view; he finds out the twins are alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know this has been months overdue, but I had this half written in my drive folder, and only recently found it again. I finished it, cleaned it up, and decided that it was good enough to add on. So, as promised, here is Erik's point of view.

Erik is sitting on the sofa, helping the younger children with their history homework. Logan should be the one doing it, but he can’t be found anywhere, and Erik is the next best person for the children to ask. 

The television is on as background noise; Charles probably had left it on when he left the room, closely followed by Jean. It’s cycling through the news from around the world, and Erik had long ago stopped listening when the news reporter had begun talking of the newest celebrity scandal. 

He leans forward, checking Amanda’s dates as the TV changes, “BREAKING NEWS” scrolling across the screen. 

_ “The Avengers have been spotted in Sokovia, where the city is now being lifted up into the sky. How it’s being done is unknown; however, we do know that the Avengers, famous for the Alien Invasion that occurred in New York, have been joined by the Iron Patriot, as well as two unfamiliar faces.” _

Erik glances up and takes in the sight, studying the shaky footage from the civilians safe on the ground. He can’t see much because of the angle, and he definitely can’t see any new Avengers. He can just barely make out Thor, waving his hammer, and Iron Man flying around the hovering city. 

_ “...Sources say that the newest recruits to the superhero team are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, orphaned at a young age…” _

The TV screen fades as Erik’s vision goes dark, and his hands are shaking as the metal in the room begins to tremble. Amanda’s pen nearly flies out of her hand. 

“Sir?” she says in a small voice. She turns around, sits up on her knees. “Are you alright?”

_ (The walls tremble as the bombs hit, and Erik watches from the kitchen table as dust and debris fly up from the building down the street. There is nowhere safe to go in the city; everywhere is being bombed.  _

_ Magda is just turning around, holding a pot that contains their dinner, when the foundation crashes down around him, and all he can do is scream as he loses sight of his wife, and his last thought is of the twins, of their safety, as he falls through the floor and blacks out.) _

Amanda looks pale, and Thomas has run off from where he was sitting next to her - to get Charles, possibly, he doesn’t know where else the kid would go - and Erik clenches his fists, because it can’t be true.  _ It can’t.  _

Pietro and Wanda had died in the bombing with their mother. He would have known if they had survived. 

_ (He hadn’t even been able to bury them. They never found the bodies, only Magda, who had been impaled by a pipe when she landed at the bottom. Erik’s powers had unconsciously saved him, the only survivor of the building collapse.) _

Charles is suddenly next to him, taking Amanda’s place. He couldn’t have been far away then, Erik thinks absently. He places a hand on Erik’s knee, staring at him worriedly.    
  


“Erik? Are you alright?”

And he wants to say, ‘Yes, of course I’m alright, why wouldn’t I be?’ But Charles knows him too well, and even he knows that he isn’t. He shakes his head, sucks in a deep breath. Charles frowns, tilts his head inquisitively, but he stays out of Erik’s head. 

Erik doesn’t know how to express how thankful he is. 

Instead, he says, “News. Look at the news.” Charles twists around to see the television, where the reporter has moved on to the battle itself. There is no mention of the newest recruits. 

“Amanda? Darling, can you tell me what was on the TV earlier?” Charles asks sweetly, beckoning the young girl closer. 

She squints, looking up at the ceiling as she tries to remember. “The reporter was saying something about new Avengers. I don’t know their names, though.”

Erik stares down at Charles’ hand, still on his knee, and tries to ground himself in the present, while memories of teaching his children to walk, playing games with Pietro while Wanda sat by her mother with a book, teaching herself to read, all ran through his mind. 

“Their names are Pietro and Wanda Maximoff.” His voice catches on the surname, as memories of a different life threaten to overcome him, looks up, and notices that Raven and Hank are standing in the doorway. They must have been with Charles when Thomas went and got him. 

Charles remembers the story of Erik’s disappearance after Trask, how Erik had shown up with a duffel bag and anger and sadness etched into the lines of his face decades later. 

“Erik...Erik, I thought you said…”

“I thought they had. But they never found them.”

Charles bites his lip, and turns back to Amanda, smiling shakily as he says, “Why don’t you and Thomas go find some of the other kids to play with? Something tells me classes might be canceled tomorrow.”

While she still looks worried, the thought of not having to study seems to excite her, because she nods and runs off with Thomas. 

Raven sits carefully on the armchair, and Hank stands behind her. “Erik? What’s going on?”

_ (He spent three years looking, because he couldn’t bear the thought that they were gone, that he had no one left in the world besides Charles. But he had pushed the telepath away after Shaw, after the disaster that was Trask, and he ran away and found Magda.  _

_   
_ _ And for a short while, he was happy.  _

_ But the universe is a cruel wake-up call, and all he wants to do is  _ **_forget_ ** _.  _

_ He goes back to Charles within a week of giving up the search for his children.)  _

Charles shakes his head slightly at Raven, and though she pinches her lips together, she tilts her head slightly in acquiescence. 

Raven stands and takes Hank’s arm, gently leading him away as Charles turns his attention back to Erik. 

“I spent three years looking, Charles. How could I have missed them? Where have they been all these years?” Erik says quietly, voice raspy. Charles shakes his head, and there’s sadness in his eyes, because he can’t imagine the pain Erik went through, the agony that coursed through him everytime he saw something that reminded him of Pietro, or Wanda, or Magda. 

“If you like, I can look into it,” Charles offers. “But not today. Not right now. You’ve just had a terrible shock that can’t be good for your health.”

Charles leaves him in Erik’s room, but he can’t rest, not knowing that his children are  _ alive  _ and  _ breathing _ and they’re  _ so close to him and he can’t do anything about it. _

He dreams in German that night, of concentration camps, but instead of his mother lying on the floor, it’s his wife, and Pietro is next, and he’s begging, pleading for Shaw  _ ‘not to hurt him, please, don’t hurt my children’  _ but Shaw is counting and the gunshot sounds. 

Erik wakes in a cold sweat, scream lodged in his throat.

He is the first one awake, making himself breakfast before the sun has even risen, because he needs to keep himself occupied or else he will lose control and he can’t bear to think of what the consequences would be if that were to happen. 

Hank hands him a manila folder later that day, and offers him a sad smile. “You won’t like what’s inside,” he says, but before Erik can ask he has turned and is already walking back towards his lab. 

Erik sequesters himself away in his room, far away from prying eyes. If what Hank said is true, which he’s sure it is, he doesn’t want anyone to see his reaction.

When he opens the folder, there are two separate packets, one on the boy and the other on the girl. He picks up Pietro’s first, and studies the information given. 

Several hours pass before he finally feels collected enough to leave his room. Charles finds him soon after he settles himself in the library.

“Are you alright, Erik?” he asks, and Erik honestly isn’t sure. Not anymore. Not after everything he had believed for so long had turned out to be a lie. 

( _ He woke up in the hospital, and there’s a nurse standing by his bedside, checking his vitals. She smiles gently down at him, while he struggles to sit up.  _

_ “Where’s my family?” he croaks desperately, throat rough with disuse. “Where are Pietro and Wanda? Where’s my wife?” _

_ The nurse’s smile falters, and she glances down at the clipboard she holds tightly in her hand.  _ _   
_ _ “Sir, I don’t…” _

_ “Did they make it? For God’s sake, tell me what happened to them!” _

_ “Sir, you have to relax.” The nurse places a hand on his shoulder, her face pinched. “The doctor will be in soon to check on you. He’ll answer your questions then.” _

_ The doctor tells him that they found Magda, unnamed before he had woken up, lying next to him, but there was no sign of their children. If they were still alive, they would have been trapped in the rubble of their apartment building. When his name is asked for, he says he is Erik Lehnsherr, instead of Magnus Maximoff. He has already started to distance himself from that life. _

_   
_ _ “It’s unlikely that they would make it out alive, even if they had survived the bomb. It’s a miracle you are alive at all, Mr. Lehnsherr.” The doctor finishes his exam and leaves the room.  _

_ “No,” Erik mutters to himself, glaring up at the ceiling. “I never should have survived.”) _

Several days later, the shock has slightly worn off. All the news channels are broadcasting the Avengers battle, offering different theories as to what had happened, why it had happened, speculating on “whether Tony Stark will offer the people of Sokovia money to help with rebuilding the city.”

Erik couldn’t care less. 

His children are alive. 

And he doesn’t know what to do anymore. 

He had lived for  _ years _ thinking he had no family left in this world, nobody beyond those at the school. The knowledge that he was  _ wrong _ , that his children grew up without him, were subjected to experiments and tests just like he had all those years ago, is enough to make his breath stutter and his knees buckle. 

Charles has fondly remarked over the years on his change, on how he’s more willing to help the children with anything they could need rather than plan a mutant revolution. He normally ignores the comments, or snarks back at him, to the amusement of the others, but he never truly thought about how different his life had been after meeting Magda. 

He had been a normal person, as much as he could be, and he had had a family, and when he returned to the mansion, he almost eagerly accepted the chance to become a teacher and interact with the children. 

At the time, he had just wanted a distraction. 

Now, thinking back, he knows it was because the children temporarily filled the hole in his heart left by his own son and daughter. 

Charles is in contact with Tony Stark, he knows that. With the X-Men being a mutant superhero group, it’s inevitable that they team up with the Avengers sometimes. He could ask about the twins, see if they remember anything. But something holds him back, tells him that they are different people from the young children he knew all those years ago. He doesn’t know if he wants to see the difference. 

/\/\

It’s several months before he hears anything else about the twins. He’s terrified of asking about them, not ready to hear the truth, or be rejected by the only family he has left. 

Charles calls him into his office one day, and Erik finds him sitting in front of the window, watching the children play outside in the sun. 

“Tony Stark knows you’re their father,” he says, not looking at Erik. Erik’s body stiffens. 

“Come, old friend, you knew it would happen eventually,” Charles says calmly. He turns to look at Erik. “Tony is far too thorough for anything to slip through the cracks.”

“Do the twins know?” Erik asks, unsure if he even wants to know the answer. 

“From what I can gather, Tony and Steve Rogers have been arguing about telling them every day. They haven’t said anything yet.”

Erik sinks down into the chair in front of Charles’ desk. “What if they hate me when they find out, Charles?” Erik’s hands are trembling slightly, his breaths coming slightly faster. “I can’t - I can’t lose them again.”

Charles smiles kindly, comes closer and places a hand on Erik’s knee. “They won’t hate you. You’re their father, Erik, and they have no reason to reject you.”

Erik nods, but unease and guilt settles in his chest, and he goes to bed that night doubting whether he’ll sleep at all.

/\/\

Another month later, and Charles tells him, “They want to meet.”

Erik’s world crashes down around him. 

All these years, and he has separated himself from his past. He buried Magnus Maximoff the same day he buried Magda. Now, his children, long believed to be dead, are alive, and want to meet. 

He doesn’t know what to say, what to do, how to treat his children. He is consumed by panic on the trip to see them, and he wonders how different they are, what they remember of him. 

Raven, sitting across from him, watches. Her yellow eyes are keen and assessing, and he knows she has a million questions, but he can’t bring himself to answer them. Not just yet.

Wanda and Pietro are standing in the field, tall and proud. He is overwhelmed with pride for them, that they had started on the path of revenge that led to nowhere but misery, and they had left it behind. They became the people that Erik always wished he could be. Tony Stark leans against his car behind them, sunglasses covering his eyes. Steve Rogers has his arms crossed on the other side of the car, watching the twins.

Erik approaches them carefully, like he would a wild animal. He doesn’t say anything at first, studying them, taking in how much they’ve grown and changed in the years he’s been gone.

“Hello, Wanda, Pietro,” he finally says, and watches as something breaks in his daughter, hesitance fading into relief. She flies into his arms and he stumbles back slightly, holding her close as she sobs into his chest. Pietro follows his sister only seconds later, wrapping an arm around Erik and the other around Wanda, and Erik feels - whole, for the first time in years. His family is safe, alive, with good people watching them now, and he clutches his children tighter. 

He never wants to let them go again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you have it! This is officially complete (even though it was finished already). I hope you all enjoyed it, and I am sorry that it took me so long to finish.

**Author's Note:**

> So I started writing this after AoU came out? And never finished it? When the Civil War trailer came out yesterday, though, I just had the strongest urge to write again. So I finished this up, edited it, and decided to post it. I have missed writing so much, and I think I have finally found my motivation and my passion for writing again. Let me know if you like this; I wrote part of this from Erik's point of view originally, and while it didn't make the final cut, I can finish that part up and post it as a separate story if anyone would want that. I hope you're all having a lovely day, and thank you for reading. :)


End file.
